Stuttering lag issue on Bootcamp...help?

[Pocko33]

Ok, so I'm close to my last option here, I've been experiencing this issue for a good month now.

I have a windows 7 64 bit OS on my bootcamp partition, ran fine for a while but i started to notice little hiccups when gaming. cutting the story shorter, this "stutter" lag is starting to really annoy me.

It runs fine for 1-2 seconds, slows down, the catches itself up again, runs fine for 1-2 seconds, slows down, then catches itself up again...rinse and repeat.

My specs are as follows:
Macbook pro9, 2
8gb ram (2x 4gb slots)
intel hd graphics 4000
intel core i7-3520m CPU @2.90GHz
cirrus logic CS4206B (AB 82) & Intel display audio cards.

(Need anything else I will let you know)

I tried the normal things, changing graphics settings, resolutions, V-syncs, all combinations of settings. No matter how high, balanced or low the settings were it didn't change a thing.

So I used my limited PC knowledge and updated windows fully, all my drivers, I went through task manager and changed priorities and closed background items.

When that didn't work I re-installed the games that were affected and to no avail it was still lagging.

Here are the list of games that seem to be affected:

Evochron mercenary
Dead island
Payday the heist

after that i hit the forums, i went through the singular games forums to find if the game was the issue, tried all the solutions possible and nothing changed.

Then I looked at windows 7, bootcamp, hardware bugs, software bugs and mac issue forums and all the solutions on there are not working.

(I may have missed a few you are welcome to ask me if I have tried something or not.)

When that didn't do anything I heard about sound cards causing similar issues, so I went to update those drivers and the Intel one worked fine but my cirris logic card apparently doesn't exist...anywhere on the internet no driver updates are found, even on their own site.

eventually the sound card stopped working so i did something i was putting off as a solution...re-installing windows on the bootcamp...the sound card worked again thank god but the stutter was still there...infact it started to affect a game that it had never affected before Payday the heist...I know this machine can run that game. Before I took out windows and put it back in the game ran beautifully.

So at the end of my tether its a shot at the forums or a trip the the apple store.

A friend of mine just told me that he knows someone that had a similar issue. the issue was that windows recognized 8gbs of RAM but only used the 1 slot of 4gbs. When he changed the one slot to 8gbs and the other was empty...it solved it. is this true? I would love to know.

Desperately need the help.
Thanks for reading, i know it's a bit long, if you require anymore specs or information tell me and i will put them up. This is the first time posting on a forum.

 

[duervo]

It's could be your CPU's Turbo Boost. There have been a few other threads about it around here. In those cases, some people have reported good results by going into the Advanced Power Settings in Windows and changing the Maximum Processor State to something like 95%, instead of 100%.

Some have also reported that an SMC reset appeared to help.

 

[Pocko33]

Thanks I'll give that a go, thanks for the reply.

 

[Pocko33]

Neither worked I'm afraid.

 

[iVikD]

Neither worked I'm afraid.

I know this might be a longshot, but try installing Windows 8 (directly from the bootcamp helper in OSX).
Win8 seems to be a lot better at fetching drivers and fixing itself (and you can restore it to factory settings within the OS itself if anything comes up)
Once it's installed, don't forget the bootcamp drivers.

Another thing that MIGHT be going on is your video cards switching from integrated to discrete over and over. Have you checked this? If not, I can give you a few options.

 

[Pocko33]

Windows 8 i think will be an expensive option but if nothing else works I'll give it a go. The other option however, I have not tried...would you mind telling me how to?

Thanks for the reply.

----------

I know this might be a longshot, but try installing Windows 8 (directly from the bootcamp helper in OSX).
Win8 seems to be a lot better at fetching drivers and fixing itself (and you can restore it to factory settings within the OS itself if anything comes up)
Once it's installed, don't forget the bootcamp drivers.

Another thing that MIGHT be going on is your video cards switching from integrated to discrete over and over. Have you checked this? If not, I can give you a few options.

Sorry, not used to this site yet...not sure if you will notice the reply or not.

 

[iVikD]

Windows 8 i think will be an expensive option but if nothing else works I'll give it a go. The other option however, I have not tried...would you mind telling me how to?

Thanks for the reply.

----------



Sorry, not used to this site yet...not sure if you will notice the reply or not.

Let's see, you have one of the new MBPs with Nvidia graphics, if I'm not mistaken... Find a program called GPU-Z (it's only a couple of MB.) This program lets you monitor the clock speeds, temperatures and other stats of your graphic cards.
Now, in my experience Windows doesn't actually recognize the discrete and integrated cards, rather, it just lists your discrete (Nvidia) as the only one, but programs like GPU-Z still track the clock speeds of the intel card.
That said, in the graphs section of GPU-Z, find your GPU and Memory clocks. Keep an eye on them as you run the games that give you issues. If the stutter happens when the clocks go from very low to very high or the other way around, then the problem is the graphic cards.
Try it out, post your results.

EDIT: Here's a link to download GPU-Z: link

 

[Pocko33]

Let's see, you have one of the new MBPs with Nvidia graphics, if I'm not mistaken... Find a program called GPU-Z (it's only a couple of MB.) This program lets you monitor the clock speeds, temperatures and other stats of your graphic cards.
Now, in my experience Windows doesn't actually recognize the discrete and integrated cards, rather, it just lists your discrete (Nvidia) as the only one, but programs like GPU-Z still track the clock speeds of the intel card.
That said, in the graphs section of GPU-Z, find your GPU and Memory clocks. Keep an eye on them as you run the games that give you issues. If the stutter happens when the clocks go from very low to very high or the other way around, then the problem is the graphic cards.
Try it out, post your results.

EDIT: Here's a link to download GPU-Z: link

I don't have Nvidia graphics...just the intel one....does that affect what you just told me?

 

[Pocko33]

Let's see, you have one of the new MBPs with Nvidia graphics, if I'm not mistaken... Find a program called GPU-Z (it's only a couple of MB.) This program lets you monitor the clock speeds, temperatures and other stats of your graphic cards.
Now, in my experience Windows doesn't actually recognize the discrete and integrated cards, rather, it just lists your discrete (Nvidia) as the only one, but programs like GPU-Z still track the clock speeds of the intel card.
That said, in the graphs section of GPU-Z, find your GPU and Memory clocks. Keep an eye on them as you run the games that give you issues. If the stutter happens when the clocks go from very low to very high or the other way around, then the problem is the graphic cards.
Try it out, post your results.

EDIT: Here's a link to download GPU-Z: link

Well here are the results of my intel card anyway.

 

[iVikD]

I don't have Nvidia graphics...just the intel one....does that affect what you just told me?

Ah, so you have the 13 inch? Hmmm then there's no graphics switching... But did you notice any sudden changes in the graphs when the stutters happen?

 

[Pocko33]

Ah, so you have the 13 inch? Hmmm then there's no graphics switching... But did you notice any sudden changes in the graphs when the stutters happen?

The core clock changed from low to high as well as the power etc.
Thank you for your patience.

 

[iVikD]

The core clock changed from low to high as well as the power etc.
Thank you for your patience.

Yeah, it's no problem.
Ok I think that the stuttering might be due to the high graphics requirements of the games you're trying to play. I don't know about the other two, but Dead Island is a pretty graphics intensive game, and the Intel 4000 HD isn't a gaming powerhouse, rather, I think it's meant to provide good performance to everyday apps that don't require a high end card while keeping the power consumption to a minimum.
Just to make sure though, does the stutter happen when you're doing things other than gaming? Browsing the web, editing documents, etc?

 

[Pocko33]

Yeah, it's no problem.
Ok I think that the stuttering might be due to the high graphics requirements of the games you're trying to play. I don't know about the other two, but Dead Island is a pretty graphics intensive game, and the Intel 4000 HD isn't a gaming powerhouse, rather, I think it's meant to provide good performance to everyday apps that don't require a high end card while keeping the power consumption to a minimum.
Just to make sure though, does the stutter happen when you're doing things other than gaming? Browsing the web, editing documents, etc?

No all apps run fine. It doesn't explain how one game used to run beautifully with high graphics and when I re-installed windows it works horribly now. But I will take this in mind and search for the power comparisons on the web.

 

[iVikD]

No all apps run fine. It doesn't explain how one game used to run beautifully with high graphics and when I re-installed windows it works horribly now. But I will take this in mind and search for the power comparisons on the web.

No, of course, the card could also be completely able and something else could be wrong, just keep in mind that your card isn't meant for hardcore gaming. If anything, that trip to the Apple store might be worth it, since they're (supposedly) more qualified and can probably solve your problem, or even give you a new one if your purchase was recent.

 

[Pocko33]

No, of course, the card could also be completely able and something else could be wrong, just keep in mind that your card isn't meant for hardcore gaming. If anything, that trip to the Apple store might be worth it, since they're (supposedly) more qualified and can probably solve your problem, or even give you a new one if your purchase was recent.

Yeah I know the card can cry a little bit sometimes. but its normally sorted easily. What am I looking at for a good or medium graphics card that's better than mine?

Hopefully apple will help, i only bought this last July early august.

Thank you for your help, if you think of anything else I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[iVikD]

Yeah I know the card can cry a little bit sometimes. but its normally sorted easily. What am I looking at for a good or medium graphics card that's better than mine?

Hopefully apple will help, i only bought this last July early august.

Thank you for your help, if you think of anything else I would greatly appreciate it.

Well, if you want a better one, you'd need to buy a new laptop, or if you have a desktop, just the card. If you're going for a new laptop, would you stick to Apple? Their newest ones have some juicy Nvidias, the previous ones (like mine) have an AMD 6700 series. The Nvidia one performs a bit better, but AMD doesn't fall behind. I overclock mine and it runs pretty much all I throw at it on high settings and with 1680x1050 resolution (or higher when using HDMI out to my tv)
You would obviously get way more power if you were using a desktop, however.

 

[Pocko33]

Well, if you want a better one, you'd need to buy a new laptop, or if you have a desktop, just the card. If you're going for a new laptop, would you stick to Apple? Their newest ones have some juicy Nvidias, the previous ones (like mine) have an AMD 6700 series. The Nvidia one performs a bit better, but AMD doesn't fall behind. I overclock mine and it runs pretty much all I throw at it on high settings and with 1680x1050 resolution (or higher when using HDMI out to my tv)
You would obviously get way more power if you were using a desktop, however.

So apple cant upgrade the graphics card to a better one? i have to buy a new one to get a better card? sucks....Being a uni student makes me broke so i may have to stick to the lag

 

[iVikD]

So apple cant upgrade the graphics card to a better one? i have to buy a new one to get a better card? sucks....Being a uni student makes me broke so i may have to stick to the lag

Well, it's not entirely an Apple issue, most, if not all laptops, are stuck with the graphic card they came with. Since the cards are made to fit the smaller motherboards and little space, they're soldered on to it, so they can't be switched out. As for the intel ones, think of them as part of your processor.
In any case, that's how it is with laptops, Apple's doubly so: you trade power and customization for comfort and mobility. Ultrabooks (like Macbook Pros) are already top of the line, so we're stuck with what we have until we deem it necessary to upgrade and buy a newer one.

 

[waterdispenser]

hey Pocko33, have you resolved this problem?
i'm having the same problem too. the game is rainbow six vegas 2 and its not a high graphics hungry game. i know intel hd4000 is not for gaming so i choose what games to install on win7 bootcamp. but for a game like this with low settings, i still get that stuttery lag.